Mount Anderson East Face (Honeymoon Headwall)

The Honeymoon Headwall is a fifty-degree-at-the-top east face line on Mount Anderson's eastern peak, the high point of the central Olympic Mountains. The approach is the longer half of the trip — bike or walk up the closed Dosewallips River road, then push through Big Timber Camp to Diamond Meadows and on to Honeymoon Meadows for a base camp at four to five thousand feet. From there a climbing day onto the Dead Anderson and Eel Glacier complex puts a party at the top of the headwall.

The descent eases from a fifty-degree entrance into the forties before opening into the upper Eel Glacier basin. Conditions in mid-winter can run from frozen with rain-formed runnels to two or three inches of soft corn over a firm base — the right window is narrow and tied closely to the standard Olympic "Juneuary" high-pressure pattern. About a thousand feet of vertical on the steepest line; longer turns continue out across the glacier.

Olympic ski touring is its own discipline. Long approaches, river crossings, and committing terrain combine with weather that turns fast off the Pacific. The Honeymoon Headwall belongs to the steepest ski objectives in the Olympics — for parties at home with no-fall ski terrain, glacier travel, and multi-day commitments. National Park backcountry permit required for camps inside the wilderness boundary.